Gary Block

Gary Block is a member of the technical staff in the High Capability Computing and Modeling Group (3873)  at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology.  While at JPL, he wrote a compiler for a C-like language to support research in massively parallel, distributed multi-processor architectures.  This compiler generates code for multiple experimental instruction set architectures.  It supports code generation for a stack-free procedure call mechanism.  This allows called procedures to run concurrently with the calling program and program execution to be distrubuted across many processors.  This compiler is currently being used by researchers at the University of Notre Dame.

Gary developed a multithreaded neural network application generator.  This allows neural network applications to be parallelized across large multiprocessor, distributed memory systems.

Gary has developed software for a board developed by JPL to support advanced computer architecture research.  This includes the realtime firmware to test and control the operation of the board, the associated Windows interface drivers, and a Windows based GUI to control the operation of the board.

Currently, Gary is developing a web based front end for a tsunami prediction system.  Users can enter undersea quake parameters to generate a tsunami wave model that would result from that quake.

Prior to joining JPL, Gary led the development of high performance printer drivers for large-scale printer manufacturers, led the development of compilers for multi-processor telemetry ground station, and was the technical lead of team that developed a CAD/CAM product.  He was the software architect that designed and developed the mission critical functions of a PBX including call processing functions, device drivers, and the real-time, multitasking operating system.  He developed a mass configuration tool to support deployment of large (100+ node multi-service networks) and developed an automated test system to test large multi-service networks.

He received his B.S. in Computer Science from California State University, Northridge and his M.B.A. from California Lutheran University.